Tuesday, 28 April 2015

A grand day out

We decided to make a day of it and first went to SudburyHall which is only a few miles from Uttoxeter. We spent a very pleasant couple
of hours there, got some lunch and, given the weather was so much better than
forecast, sat in the sun by the lake. I even managed to do some fabric shopping,
spotting these rather P&Q appropriate tea towels in the shop (I have plans
for a sewing caddy for these). At only £8 for two I thought these good value,
especially as they were wrapped with ~1m of gross-grain ribbon.

Then it was on to Uttoxeter for the last hour or so of the
quilt show. Arriving at this time meant the crowds had been and gone and there was
plenty of room to do some shopping and view the competition entries. I was quite
focussed with my shopping, but surprised myself at how much I could spend in a
short time. First in the bag was some Oakshott cottons, quickly followed by
some more shot cottons, all for the quilt for my husband. Then it was time for
some bargain hunting - I found lace zips at 5 for £5 and a rummage in the
thread baskets resulted in 12 reels of silk thread for £10 (I used the same
thread for piecing and quilting the rainbow pouch and wanted to add more
colours to my stash). My final purchases were a reel of 40wt Aurifil and very
small quilting ruler which will come in handy more for measuring that cutting.

Then it was time to wander around the quilting displays and
it was great being able to view the quilts without having to worry about
bumping into people. The work on display was stunning which was only to be
expected given there were entries from professional textile artists and full-time
quilters. I must admit to a little bit of excitement at seeing my own entries
on display, though if I ever enter another show, perhaps I should roll not fold a
quilt for packing.

(I’ve put more photos of these at the end of this post.)

It was rather like report day at school when I got the
comment forms but I packed them in boot of the car and had to wait
until I got home to read them. Given the calibre of the other entrants, it was
no surprise that my entries did not get placed but the judges’ comments were
very fair and it was nice to see a few excellents on the report sheet.

This is my third time visting this show and I must admit to
liking it for its size and location - it is not at every quilt show that you can
sit in the sun on the grandstands looking over a racecourse. I’m sure I will be
back again next year, but I’ve yet to decide whether it will be as competition
observer or a competition entrant.

1 comment:

your pieces look beautiful, love how you have spilled the little hexies out of your mini pouch. Lots of purchases made in such a short time! You must continue to enter quilts so others may enjoy them too

About Me

I enjoy a variety of sewing (dressmaking, patchwork, quilting, cross stitch) but should really spend less time on the internet reading about sewing and more time actually sewing.
Find me on twitter as @sewlittletosay.